From the Edges

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The NIH Keeps Up With The Times: 1, 2,
3.
David Baltimore Has A Flashback: ***. The NY Times Keeps Up With Times: ***.
The Faith of Anthony Fauci: ***. Anthony Fauci Explains How HIV Causes AIDS: ***.
Robert Gallo on The Force of Ejaculation: ***, on HIV Theory: ***, Lectures in Marseilles: ***.
David Ho Does The Math: ***.
John Mellors Sets the Record Straight: ***.
Bono, el Magnifico, Holds (Another) Press Conference: ***.
Anthony Fauci Explains Journalism in the Age of AIDS: ***.
Anthony Fauci and David Ho Disprove an Old Adage: ***.
Anthony Fauci Explains ICL and AIDS: ***
The CDC Can't Keep Up With The Times:***
The Method of the "Small Inquisitor" Moore:***
The Co-Discovery of a Nobel-Worthy Enzymatic Activity:***
The Revenge of the "Very" Minor Moriarty:***
Julie Gerberding and Anthony Fauci Learn Arithmetic:***
Osama Obama Has a Message for Africa:***

July 23, 2008

Roche to AIDS Patients: Drop Dead!

Our Buddies at Roche are moving from one boondoggle to another. Bye-bye to AIDS drugs, Hello to Hep C drugs! Lord have mercy! More drugs for a different set of non-viruses:)

Our gal on the spot, Ann Thayer (PhD from UC Berkeley in chemistry) has the goods:

SWISS PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANYRoche has discontinued research on HIV therapies after determining that nothing in its pipeline would offer enough benefit over existing drugs to warrant further development. Roche had been investigating several new antiretrovirals, all of which were at the preclinical stage and at least six years away from the market.

Roche will, however, continue to support the few therapies and diagnostics it already makes, according to a company spokeswoman. These include the protease inhibitors Invirase and Viracept (sold outside the U.S.) and the cell-fusion inhibitor Fuzeon.

In 2007, worldwide sales of Fuzeon reached $267 million but dropped 34% in the first quarter of 2008 because of competition from new HIV drugs. In 2006, Roche stopped selling Hivid, which was launched in 1992 and was one of the first three HIV drugs marketed, as other treatments superseded it.

About 30 individual medicines or combinations are available to treat the 33 million people infected with HIV. Another 50 drugs are in clinical development, according to the industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America. Market research from Datamonitor predicts the global HIV drug market will grow about 3.7% per year to $11.5 billion in 2016.

Roche will redeploy scientists in HIV research to other activities, its spokeswoman says. The company's virology efforts are largely focused on hepatitis C, with three products in clinical trials. If Roche identifies a significant HIV-related breakthrough outside the company, she says it would consider contributing in some way, as it did in developing Fuzeon with the biotech firm Trimeris.

In the past, activists have targeted Roche for its drug-pricing policies in poor countries and the $25,000 annual cost for Fuzeon. The difficult-to-manufacture peptide drug was the first new treatment for drug-resistant patients, points out Jules Levin, executive director of the National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project.

AIDS advocacy groups regret the loss of any research efforts. Although a burst of new drugs has hit the market in the past two years, the pipeline is actually pretty skimpy, says Peter Staley, founder of informational website AIDSmeds.com. Most candidates are only in early clinical trials. Roche's commitment to hepatitis C, however, is viewed as important because the disease is a leading cause of death for those people also infected with HIV.